Twitter drops following requirement for DM: Brandlovers can go wild

“So… why can’t I send a DM to Pink, then?” During a crash-Twitter-course here at InSites, on of my colleagues asked this question about Twitter. That may seem basic for heavy users, but the answer I gave (“because Pink’s probably not following you, although you rock of course”) is outdated since yesterday. Twitter has begun amending its messaging policy for Verified Accounts,  allowing celebrities and brands to receive Direct Messages (the personal kindalike e-mail thingy for Twitter-users ) without having to follow the sender. So, my colleague can now send Pink a Direct Message, without Pink following my colleague. Why is that important and why should you care?
Well, that my colleague can now come into contact with Pink via DM, good for her (and probably nice for Pink, too). The Next Web writes:

Fans of brands or celebrities will welcome the news but we aren’t so sure the celebrities or staff running these popular accounts will be happy to receive an incoming flood of personal messages. With that in mind, Twitter has provided the option of disabling the feature, making the new feature a welcome addition for PR firms and brands looking to interact with their followers.

Brands looking to interact with their followers. That is the importance, here. As a (big) brand, it’s almost undoable to follow each of your followers back to make the possibility of a direct message happen. With the dropping of the requirement to follow brands can now be more conversational than they were before and that’s a good thing.

I’m wondering how many extra fte it’s going to cost to service all the DM’s that now will come in at the inboxes of the staff that is managing accounts like from Barack Obama, Ashton Kutcher, or CocaCola.